If Linux® was hot a year ago, today it's on fire.
In 2006 the Linux server market grew five times faster than the Microsoft server market and eight times faster than the server market overall; in the first quarter of 2007 Linux servers grew 10 percent compared to the corresponding quarter in 2006 - a second consecutive quarter of year-over-year, double-digit growth - for a total of US$1.6 billion in sales. Linux servers now represent 12.7 percent of all server revenue.1
Linux middleware is growing even faster. IDC predicts that market will reach US$13 billion by 2010.2 Linux desktops may still represent just a tiny percentage of the overall market, but IDC noted recently that licenses of Linux software for PCs rose 20.8 percent worldwide in 2006, and project to increase 30 percent again in 2007.3
Even on mobile devices, Linux is taking off. At the Linux Foundation Summit in June 2007, a representative from Motorola, which has shipped some 6 million Linux-based mobile devices to date, claimed that 60 percent of its mobile devices would soon be running some version of Linux.4
What's behind this growth? As in the past, customers continue to choose Linux for its flexibility, attractive TCO, security and performance. But today innovation is top-of-mind with CEOs - they want to offer innovative products and services, and they want to implement innovative operations, processes, systems and business models, too. More and more organizations are realizing that Linux - and the open source community of which it's a part - provide a more fertile ground for innovation than do competing operating systems.
Linux itself delivers innovations faster than other operating systems. Some of the largest IT firms in the world (including IBM) plus thousands of independent developers contribute to the Linux source code, and this community can innovate faster than any company acting alone. Over the past several years Linux has proven much more responsive to changes and advancements in technology, and has provided support for new devices, components, protocols and standards more quickly than has UNIX® or Microsoft® Windows®. The leading commercial Linux distributors release major Linux upgrades every month or so, a release schedule that far outpaces those of UNIX and Windows.
More important - and like other open source platforms - Linux offers software vendors and organizations a more efficient model for innovation.
"You get a great advantage when you use the open source community… because you avoid duplicating work that's been done already, and you leverage the reliability and security of open source software." – Inna Kuznetsova, Director, Cross-IBM Linux Strategy "Vendors or companies can leverage the open source community to provide the open standards implementations in their solutions, and then use private source software to differentiate the product or implement competitive advantage," says Inna Kuznetsova, Director of Cross-IBM Linux Strategy. "You get a great advantage by using the open source community in this way, because you avoid duplicating work that's been done already, and you leverage the reliability and security of open source software."
IBM actually pioneered this model in 2000, when it embedded the open-source Apache Web server - to which it also contributed code - in its IBM® WebSphere® Application Server to create the first mainstream "mixed source" software product. Today IBM is working with partners in the Linux and open source community to create truly innovative offerings - and to help customers innovate in ways that give them significant competitive and strategic advantages.
One such area of innovation is the real-time Linux application development and deployment platform, collaboration between IBM and Red Hat. 'Real-time' technology enables applications that perform certain critical functions in guaranteed execution times - typically measured in milliseconds - and that perform all functions faster overall.
"The biggest demand for real-time applications exists in areas such as defense, aviation, nuclear power, stock trading - applications where customers have a critical need to guarantee response time to certain events, situations where human lives or large sums of money are at risk," says Jim Gray, Director of the IBM Linux Integration Center in Austin, Texas. "But we're also seeing interest from other markets, including telecommunications and even gaming."
The IBM/Red Hat real-time platform includes IBM WebSphere Real Time, a real-time J2SE Java Virtual Machine, with a version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) modified to incorporate real-time capabilities. Applications developed on the platform can run on IBM System x or AMD- or Intel-based BladeCenter servers.
One early adopter, United States Navy, currently uses a real-time solution platform by IBM, Red Hat and Raytheon to develop solutions for vessel command-and-control, navigation, targeting , weapons control and radar systems. The Navy plans to deploy these systems on its next-generation DDG-1000 Zumwalt Class destroyers. Beyond the Navy/Raytheon application, IBM has 10 real-time project pilots ongoing, and about the same number of potential pilots in its pipeline.
Virtualization is technology that lets an organization divide the resources of a single hardware server into multiple virtual servers. Virtualization enables an organization to make better use of its existing hardware, or to consolidate multiple server boxes down to a more manageable and affordable number.
Virtualized Linux solutions appeal to existing Linux customers looking to scale cost-effectively, and to customers looking to simplify infrastructures grown out of control on other operating systems.
IBM offers Linux virtualization using a range of virtualization technologies, including Xen (an open-source virtualization technology - to which IBM contributed - for Linux on X86 machines), Microsoft Virtual Server, VMware, and IBM's own Advanced Virtualization for System p™, System z™ and System i™ servers.
IBM's library of customer references is jammed with stories of customers who realized dramatic results by consolidating with virtualized Linux solutions. For example, Plala, a Japanese ISP, consolidated its 30 x86 Linux servers to 2 IBM System p5-550Q servers running Linux with IBM Advanced POWER™ virtualization; this gives the company the capacity to expand into such offerings as voice over IP (VoIP), video content and broadband, while simultaneously cutting system costs an estimated 45 percent and power consumption an estimated 80 percent. And world-known insurer Nationwide recently consolidated a sprawling, distributed infrastructure of over 5000 servers to 2 IBM System z9 mainframes running Linux with z/VM® virtualization - a move that Nationwide estimates will reduce data center floor space by 80 percent, raise CPU utilization to 70 percent on average, and save US$15 million over the next three years.
In many cases, mid-range businesses have to delay getting started with Linux - and realizing Linux benefits - because they don't have the IT resources that larger organizations have for installing and configuring new server solutions.
For this reason, IBM is working with Linux distributors and business partners who want to offer integrated stacks - preconfigured, preinstalled combinations of Linux, IBM middleware, ISV applications and even hardware that create a complete Linux solution that a mid-range customer can use essentially out-of-the-box.
"These [integrated stacks] are enterprise Linux solutions you literally unpack, plug into your network, do some very limited network configuration and then you're up and running." –
Jim Gray, Director, IBM Linux Integration Center. "These are enterprise Linux solutions you literally unpack, plug into your network, do some very limited network configuration and then you're up and running," says Jim Gray of IBM's Linux Integration Center. "You don't have to go through the work of installing the operating system, middleware or applications. It makes it much easier for a mid-market company to get a Linux solution up and running."
The first of these to hit the market is the Novell Integrated Stack for SuSE Linux Enterprise (ISSLE), which combines Novell SUSE Enterprise Server, IBM WebSphere Application Server and IBM DB2® Database Express and IBM System x or System p hardware into a complete, Linux-based file, print and Web application/database server. ISSLE also includes a one-year license for Centeris Likewise, an ISV solution that integrates ISSLE with Windows Active Directory for simplified management.
In addition to being easy to install, ISSLE is easy to buy: Customers can license it for US$349 per user per year, or the same cost as licensing SUSE Enterprise Server itself. "The WebSphere and DB2 Express software versions included in ISSLE are no-license-fee versions of the products, so we're essentially offering commercial products with open-source pricing," says IBM's Kuznetsova.
At this writing, IBM was also teaming up with Novell and AMD to create an integrated data management solution running on IBM System x servers powered by AMD Opteron 1000 Series processors and featuring the new Informix Dynamic Server 11.
At LinuxWorld in February 2007 IBM announced the IBM open client solution, a model for deploying a single, comprehensive desktop client that can run on multiple operating systems, including Linux. An open client can include any combination of
- The messaging and collaboration capabilities of IBM Lotus® Notes® 8 rich client, including email, RSS and ATOM feeds, productivity editors that support Open Document Format (ODF), embedded Web browsing, and support for composite applications
- The unified collaboration and communication capabilities of IBM Lotus Sametime®, including instant messaging (IM), presence and location awareness, Web conferencing and VoIP
- Social computing services provided by IBM Lotus Connections,
- Team project management from IBM Lotus Quickr™
- Integration of applications and information sources provided by IBM WebSphere Portal
Both Lotus Notes 8 and Lotus Sametime are based on the server managed client middleware provided by Lotus Expeditor, which itself is built on Eclipse open source rich client platform.
An open client gives customers the flexibility to deploy different desktop or client device components to different users running different operating systems - based on users' roles and job responsibilities. That flexibility, says IBM Chief Competitive Marketing Officer for Lotus Software Antony Satyadas, will almost always result in savings for the customer.
"Up to now most companies have had only one choice, Microsoft Office running on Microsoft Windows, and they often sign Microsoft Enterprise Agreements to purchase everything for each desktop at an 'all you can eat buffet' price," says Satyadas. "But typically, 80 percent of the users make use of less than 20 percent of the functionality in Microsoft Office. So today customers, vendors and partners are increasingly and understandably concerned about the cost and value of Vista, Office 2007, proprietary formats and Microsoft Enterprise Agreements.
"An open client approach," Satyadas continues, "gives customers the opportunity to reduce total cost of ownership by not renewing or entering Microsoft Enterprise Agreements, by using IBM productivity editors or other Office alternatives, and by moving the appropriate user segments to a Linux-based desktop. Customers can segment their users, give each segment exactly the capabilities it needs, and free up money in the IT budget by not having to buy the entire Microsoft stack for each user. It's a more flexible a la carte approach."
An IBM open client solution is based on best practices gleaned from IBM's own internal pilot deployment of more than 25,000 desktops. An IBM open client solution is based on best practices gleaned from IBM's own internal deployment of Linux and Windows desktops. Outside of IBM roughly 150 companies are piloting an open client. One such customer, PSA Peugeot Citroen, will deploy an open client solution to 3,500 desktops by the end of 2007 and to 20,000 desktops by the end of 2008. "We have pilots in every geography, every industry," says Satyadas. "And when Lotus Notes 8 becomes available we expect customer pilots and Business Partner adoption to spike."
Companies and individual users can get a taste of an open client running on Linux, without help from an IT administrator. Novell offers a downloadable, bootable DVD image of Lotus Notes 8 running on Novell SLED10 that anyone can use to test-drive the solution. Learn more.
IBM's commitment to - and investment in - Linux is literally unmatched in the IT industry. Today IBM offers some 500 middleware products that run on Linux, plus several market-leading clients - including Lotus Notes, Lotus Sametime and IBM Lotus Expeditor - that support the Linux operating system. More than 10,000 IBM employees work in dedicated Linux porting, R&D, sales and marketing roles; this includes more than 600 developers working in the Linux Technology Center and some 7000 IBM Global Services consultants worldwide. As of this writing IBM has participated in some 15,000 Linux customer engagements.
Just as important, IBM is committed to its participation and leadership in the Linux and open source communities. Over the past eight years IBM has contributed to more than 150 open source projects, including Linux, Apache, Eclipse, Blade.org and Power.org. And IBM will continue to work with business partners to deliver software innovations that bring the technical and business benefits of Linux to more and more customers.
Sources:
- "Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker." International Data Corp., May 2007
- "The Changing Dynamics of the Linux and Open Source Industry." International Data Corp., February 2007.
- "Linux Starts to Find Home on Desktops." Robert A. Guth, The Wall Street Journal, March 13 2007.
- "Linux Community Looks Past Microsoft." Charles Babcock, Information Week, June 18, 2007.
The information contained in this documentation is provided for informational purposes only. While efforts were made to verify the completeness and accuracy of the information contained in this documentation, it is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, express or implied. In addition, this information is based on IBM's current product plans and strategy, which are subject to change by IBM without notice. IBM shall not be responsible for any damages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related to, this documentation or any other documentation. Nothing contained in this documentation is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warranties or representations from IBM (or its suppliers or licensors), or altering the terms and conditions of the applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software.
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